Ch.203The Fire of Greece (3)

I secured the island of Crete and established naval supremacy throughout the Aegean Sea.

This meant that no one could stop us even if we led our entire fleet from Crete to Constantinople.

Nevertheless, conquering Constantinople would be quite difficult.

The various weapons in Constantinople would certainly trouble us.

Among those weapons was, of course, the Greek Fire that we had learned about.

“However, Greek Fire is no longer threatening.”

At my words, Temujin and the soldiers all nodded.

This was because we all had vinegar hanging at our waists.

As we absorbed the craftsmen of Crete, we also learned how to counter Greek Fire attacks.

One of those methods was vinegar.

In actual history, there were accounts of Islamic guards using vinegar to neutralize leaked Greek Fire.

Therefore, this method could be considered very effective.

This vinegar was naturally produced by storing wine in leather pouches for a long time.

As a result, we could drink it instead of fermented mare’s milk to quench our thirst.

Since it was vinegar fermented from wine, its acidity wasn’t very high.

So it was possible to drink it as a kind of ionic beverage with the alcohol removed.

In a way, it could be considered similar to fermented mare’s milk.

However, mare’s milk, being made from horse milk, lacked sufficient sugar to become vinegar.

Anyway, for this reason, everyone aboard the ships now wore leather pouches at their waists.

Boom boom boom.

It seemed the ships would soon arrive at Constantinople.

I stood at the bow and drew my sword.

“Soldiers of the Ulus! Army blessed by God, Tengri, and our ancestors. We have come here by divine calling to punish those with false beliefs.”

At my words, all the soldiers looked at me.

For them, whether God truly existed or not was a separate matter.

But seeking divine help in crucial moments was the same throughout history, regardless of time or place.

So it was natural to call upon the divine before a life-or-death battle.

“God wishes for us to conquer these false beings. And in return, He has promised us eternal glory and vast treasures.”

“Woaaah!”

“Blood and glory!”

“Nothing can stop us!”

For the soldiers, vast treasures were as important as divine blessing.

This was because we had decided to pause our campaigns and focus on internal affairs after this Byzantine expedition.

We made this decision because we planned to target Western Europe after conquering Constantinople.

“Brave soldiers of the Ulus, raise your swords.”

If we conquered Constantinople, European conquest would become possible.

Constantinople held such an important position as the gateway to Europe.

In fact, many historians mark the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in the 20th siege as the end of the Middle Ages.

It was such a significant event because once Constantinople fell, the Balkan Peninsula could be conquered directly by land.

And from there, Hungary or Austria could be targeted.

In original history, this historic event occurred in the 15th century.

The 15th century was when gunpowder weapons and cannons were introduced to battlefields.

More precisely, it was the era when the age of cavalry was ending, replaced by dense infantry with pikes and musketeers capable of concentrated firepower.

This naturally led to the gradual decline of cavalry, which had dominated battlefields from ancient times through the Middle Ages.

Of course, cavalry continued to play a role afterward, but it’s true that muskets weakened cavalry forces.

Anyway, we were now in the 12th century, three centuries earlier than the 15th.

The 12th century was the medieval period, truly the age of cavalry.

“Glory to Gurkhan!”

“Glory to the Ulus!”

“Long live the Lord of the Four Seas!”

The soldiers shouted these words as they drew their swords.

Though currently aboard ships, most of them were cavalry.

Mongols were the most skilled horsemen on Earth.

If the Mongols conquered Constantinople, essentially all of Europe would fall into our hands.

For this purpose, we planned to reorganize after the conquest, just as we had taken a breather after conquering the Jin Dynasty.

Of course, this was a matter for after the siege of Constantinople.

So now we needed to focus on the battle.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

The drumbeats grew louder.

At the same time, Byzantine soldiers with bows began to appear on the distant walls.

“The weak enemy raises bows against us. It’s time to punish these foolish ones. At the end of this war, eternal glory, honor, and treasures await. This I can swear in the name of Gurkhan. So brothers! Do not fear death. I stand behind you!”

As I said this, I struck my sword with my fist to make a sound.

The soldiers followed my action.

In truth, Mongols didn’t have a culture of striking swords to boost morale.

It was just that everyone was on ships, and with the waves making communication difficult, this seemed more effective than raising voices.

But this method seemed to work well, as the soldiers’ morale visibly improved.

“!()*@#($*!”

“#&$*(#!!”

The Byzantine soldiers on the walls began shooting arrows at us.

I immediately ordered the soldiers to raise their shields.

“Raise shields! Defend against the enemy’s arrow attack!”

At my command, soldiers from the Sultanate of Rum and surrendered Roman soldiers stepped forward with shields.

I positioned them at the front not only to prevent Mongol soldiers from taking damage but also to reduce casualties from enemy arrows.

As mentioned before, Mongol soldiers were weak in naval battles.

Holding shields on deck was inefficient for them.

Of course, I didn’t leave the Mongol soldiers idle.

While holding shields on deck might be difficult, using bows was still possible.

“Archers! Prepare to fire!”

“The Khagan’s order has been given! Prepare to fire!”

“Archers! Ready your bows!”

At my command, Temujin relayed the order to the Mongol soldiers.

Simultaneously, I signaled the drummer to instruct the other ships to prepare for arrow attacks.

When all ships were ready, I brought down my sword.

“Fire!”

“Fire!”

“Release arrows!”

“Deliver death to the enemy!”

The orders came from field commanders Temujin, Munglig, Muqali, Jebe, and Jelme.

At that moment, arrows from our fleet filled the sky.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh.

“Arghhhh!”

“Guhk!”

“Gaak!”

Byzantine soldiers hit by arrows fell like autumn leaves.

Those who fell either died from hitting their heads on the steep cliffs below the walls or drowned in the sea.

“The enemy’s first line of defense is wavering!”

At my command, the flag bearer waved a large white flag.

In response, red flags were raised on each fleet. Most fleets raised red flags, but some ships that had suffered heavy damage from enemy arrows raised black flags.

Since this was a naval battle, giving orders verbally was difficult.

Even using drums could cause confusion, so we were using flags for command.

The white flag from the command ship was part of this system.

The white flag from the command ship ordered the vessels to approach the coastal walls in the Golden Horn.

With the red flags raised, it was time for the ships to approach the coastal walls.

“Gurkhan! The enemy is using Greek Fire!”

“Additionally, they’re pouring stones, hot water, and petroleum!”

The enemy, noticing our siege approach, responded swiftly.

They reduced arrow attacks and quickly switched to other weapons that could cause physical damage to our forces.

“Deck crews, continuously spray vinegar diluted with water!”

Vinegar was the most effective method to neutralize Greek Fire.

However, since we couldn’t use unlimited vinegar, we had to focus on containing the damage rather than completely extinguishing it.

We had loaded sand onto the ships for this situation.

But opening heavy sand bags while facing fierce enemy resistance would be suicidal.

So the plan was to weaken the Greek Fire with vinegar and use that opportunity to scale the walls.

“Munglig!”

At my call, Munglig nodded.

He turned and gave hand signals to the Kheshig.

“Raise shields! We will be the first to conquer the walls!”

The Kheshig cheered and burned with fighting spirit.

To support them, infantry from the Sultanate of Rum formed a shield wall.

Thanks to this, the Kheshig could attach ropes or ladders to the walls without major casualties.

While they could climb the walls in this state, they would be vulnerable to attack.

Having no intention of wasting elite Kheshig troops, I decided to use what we had prepared.

“Sound the leather horn.”

At my command, a messenger took out a leather horn and blew it.

Boooooo.

As a sound like a ship’s horn rang out, the waiting dromons rushed toward the walls.

The dromons we were operating were troops conscripted from surrendered cities in western Anatolia.

This meant these dromons had rams suitable for impacting walls and wide decks for close combat.

In fact, the Byzantine Empire had once dominated the Mediterranean using ship-based assault tactics.

Now, ironically, we were using their excellent dromons to attack them.

Boom! Crash!

As the Byzantine ships attacked the coastal walls of the Golden Horn with their rams, the walls shook violently.

As mentioned repeatedly, the coastal walls were vulnerable at this time, before the Venetian attack.

With multiple ships conducting coastal assaults, one section began to gradually collapse.

“The walls are starting to crumble!”

At the soldiers’ report, I nodded.

Then I gave orders to the Kheshig who were ready to scale the walls.

“It’s time to crush the enemy!”